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Madge Muses About Costumes...

My lovely daughter will be attending her first Halloween party this year. She's officially announced her retirement from Trick or Treating. You'd probably think having a super crafty mom she'd have a super crafty costume...

...you'd be wrong.

She begged me for a 'bee girl' costume she found online with a long hot pink wig. So that's what she's wearing. So much for super crafty! I have no idea where she gets this pink wig penchant. ..odd.

Either my mother or I made all of my Halloween costumes as a kid. My mom is an incredibly gifted artist...our pumpkins were amazing! For several years my costume revolved around a large box. One year I covered a box in tin foil, added arm holes and red velvet ribbon and wore a huge red velvet bow in my hair that read "Do Not Open Until December 25th." The next year I cut slits in the sides of a box, bending it to create a tin foil covered spaceship...I wore a green turtleneck and tights and was the alien inside of the ship. One year my mother made me a sandwich out of large pieces of poster board, paint and crepe paper, I wore brown tights and turtleneck. The problem with the big box costume is...it's impossible to get in and out of houses...and you can't sit down...one would think after the first time I wore the big box costume I'd have learned my lesson...

One would be wrong.

During my punk rock years I got an attitude about Halloween and suggested that my daily attire was a costume already and I didn't need an excuse to dress up. Sheesh. What a Debbie Downer...lighten up a little, Madge! Here's me in a 'not costume' at a Halloween party.

I guess I had a point there...

I've made a lot of fun costumes through the years and I try to keep them low sew and easy. I've been Bat Girl twice, which is super simple with one of those stretchy executioner hoods with black cardboard ears attached and a black unitard with the logo out of felt glued on the chest (and of course a killer pair of stiletto boots!) I was Emma Peel from The Avengers once in a wickedly saucy catsuit. A couple of years ago I went as Jackie Kennedy...though I was tempted to cover my vintage wool suit in fake blood and carry a brain chunk...I decided against it after further thought. Perhaps a little too...distasteful. We have a huge grey fleece hoodie that has been both Eeyore (with pinned in black yarn mane and big floppy painted felt ears) and a Mouse with smaller felt ears and a wheel of cheese fashioned from a Styrofoam disc painted yellow in which we created holes by scooping out segments with a cheese baller...and added a bite mark and a large round pillow for a big belly. We put velcro on the back of the cheese so it could attach to the sweatshirt while trick or treating. All of these pics are buried in our storage spaces...so I can't share any.

I'm an actor, so I've had some amazing costumes created for me to wear onstage. Would that I kept one or two...but alas I did not.Photo Copyright Tim Duckworth from The Triumph of Love KSU ClassicTheatreWorks

I don't have any parties to attend this year..so I'm afraid there will be no costumes for Madge. We don't get any trick or treaters in our neighborhood, we're mostly surrounded by Amish folk and they don't do Halloween, all the action is in town and without a kid in tow, I'd look like a weirdo. I have to admit, I'm going to miss the little Halloweenies! Tell me about your costumes in my comments section!

I'll be back tomorrow with a final Halloween project for iLoveToCreate...and then I'm gearing up for a series of great ideas for the Holidays!

6 comments:

AWWW! I'm so sorry you're going to miss dressing up this year. You could always come visit us in Lakewood and help me hand out candy...I have the most maah-velous witches' hat to wear this year! I'll wear it on your behalf....

I always thought I would be the mom to have fresh baked cookies on the counter at all times and make all halloween costumes. Glad that little delusion never happened (although my hubby would beg to differ on the fresh baked cookies). When my son was 3 I made him the cutest dinosaur costume. Green sweats, with a 2nd pair cut in half, the leg stuffed with batting and sewed onto the butt for a tail! Green zip hoodie with big googly eyes glued on top and stiff felt triangles from the head to the tail.When daughter was 3 I took a flowy dress from Goodwill and added a multi layered tulle skirt. I made a crown of flowers with ribbons and a fairy wand. There may have been wings. She wore that for many years. Lately, son has worn whatever sport uniform he had on hand, and daughter seems enamored of either witches or fairies. This year we found the perfect flowy green dress that was someone's dance costume and some wings. Son is officially too cool for trickin' (but will still take the treats).I was never one for dressing up, but I did go to school at UW Madison which used to have the most awesome and terrifying halloween party on State St. Over 100,000 people from a tri-state area would come in. There is nothing scarier than being felt up in the throng of humanity by a guy in a grim reaper outfit...try explaining that to the cops (in a line-up all the Grim Reapers tend to look alike). Being on stage was a great opportunity for costumes. My best was when I played Dolly in the Community Theater Hello Dolly way back in 1994 (yikes!). I had victorian costumes and ball gowns and hats made just for me!Thanks for the reminiscing. Love the box ideas!Enjoy the day!Erin

My 16 year old son returned from the Halloween store last night with his purchased costume (yep, lame creative mom with no time). He told me there were two choices - one, a foam taco or two, a prostitute. Thankfully he chose the taco. He quipped, "thankfully they didn't turn the taco into a slutty taco!"

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